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OUVfitt (HJLDSMITUR UI'Mi AND TIMKS. |n,,f(K L
1757. one had told William Pitt that u HOW man of merit, called
JEt!¥». Goldsmith, waa about to try the pruleHHion of literature, he would have turned aside in scorn. It had been HuiHdimt to throw doubt upon the career of Edmund Burke, that, in this very year, he opened it with the writing of a book,* It was Horace "Walpole's vast surprise, four years later, that so sensible} a man UH "young Mr. Burke" Hhonld not have lt worn off his authorism yet. He. thinks there in nothing HO " charming an writers, and to b« one. Ho will know butter tc one of these dayH."t
Such waH thu worldly account of Kterature, when, as 1
have said, deserted by tho patron, and nut yet supported by tho public, it was committed to tho mercies of the bookseller. They were few and rnro. It wan the mission of Johnson to extend them, and to replace the writer'n craft, in even its worldliest view, on a dignified and honourable basis; but Johnson's work was juat begun. I To was him- self, as yet, one of tho moaner workers for hire ; and though already author of the DicMonary, wan too glad in this very year to have Bobort Dodale.y's guinea for writing paragraphs in the London Chronicle,, " Had you, sir, bcion an author of the " lower class, one of those who are paid by the sheet," remon- strated worthy printer Bowyer with an author who could pay, who did not need to be paid, and who would not bo trifled with by the man of types.! Of tho lower class, unlike that dignitary Mr. John Jackson, still was Bamuel Johnson ; lie was but a Grub Street man, paid by tho Kheet, when Goldsmith entered Grub Street, periodical writer and reviewer.
* The VindicMfan of Natwal, Society, In imitation of Lwl HoliiiKl't'i'kc.
>h Hitraoo Walpolo'a Go-mapmdentv (Btl, 1840 ; fat wluuh I Bhall in futuro refer tin tho (hlli'ded LMm of Walpolo.)
$ NidtolHH Lltcmri/ Anecdote* of the Kt'</htrmffi i'tmliny (1.H121, ii,
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